


Beast in a snare

by Briaggg



Category: Over the Garden Wall (Cartoon & Comics)
Genre: One Shot Collection, One off characters - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:00:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25717687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Briaggg/pseuds/Briaggg
Summary: Hunters often frequent the woods and will often leave traps for animals to fall in to help them catch food. Sometimes more then animals get caught and they may need a little help from a wondering woodsman.
Relationships: -
Comments: 4
Kudos: 19





	1. Chapter 1

He wasn't paying attention, he should have been more vigilant but he wasn't, now look what happed.  
The great beast of the winter woods, the eater of hopes, the beast of enternal darkness had been trapped my some common iron. The beast struggled with the snare, trying to pry the damed thing off. He hissed as his fingers slipped causing it to sink slightly deeper, brute strength was never his strong suit and normally he didn't care after all that isn't his trade but now he cursed his short comings.

He growled as he gave up and he forced himself to stand from his sitting position. He griped on to a near by tree as he tried to regain his balance while using his one good leg. As he struggled to stay upright when he started with walk clutching onto near by trees as he did so, he imagined killing the Parasite that set the trap in the first place "those foolish Hunters are going to make fine elder Wood tree once I'm done with them" his voice had fare more bite then they normally would as he imagined waiting for them return to his woods and luring then to get lost among his trees and hunting them all down one by one and planting them for elder woods.

Perhaps he'll go to pots field for the removal of the snare but he reconsidered as he imagined the smug way his nabour would react to his predicament so he continued on word. Perhaps the witches could use magic to worp the metal off or mayb- His thoughts were interrupted by a distinct chop of wood and a familiar song as he turned to face the music he dreaded the woodsman to see him like this, why I'd be just absolutely humiliating. He quickly turned to make his way towards one of the witches houses but he accidentally put too much pressure of the injured leg causing it to buckle and the beast to be thrown to the floor with a loud thud. He hissed in pain as he quickly moved to sit himself up against a tree, he groaned as he the realisation that he'd have to walk miles to the witches house dawned on him.  
He groaned slightly louder as he realised that he was going to have ask the woodsman for help, the last thing he needed was to have to woodman, of all people to see him in such a state. 

He went to stand but froze as a voice called out to the darkness "who's there? Reveal your self" the woodsmans voice came out loud and clear against the silence of the night, the old man must have heard him fall. The sound of footsteps of snow approaching filled the beast with a sense of mild anxiety as he quickly rushed to his feet only to have them give out from under him once again sending him back to the forest floor. 

The familiar light of his lantern soon cast light on the beasts fur as the woodsman came into sight. The beast grew still, not really knowing the best way to save his dignity. He settled on merely looking at the woodsman from the corner of his eye. He watched the woodman freeze in surprise at the odd site before him and the beast could hardly blame him. "Beast?" his voicehad more surprise then the hate or fear he was used to hearing, another blow to his ego. He refused to respond, he didn't really know how to ask for help nor a lie to trick the woodsman into helping. He watched as the woodsman look over his wooden frame and stop at the cast iron snare that was tightly claimed over his left ankle, it was hard not to notice the metal reflect the light from his lantern, dispite the black oil that covered it and that still dripped from the wound. He heard the human give out a sharp laugh as he realised the beasts situation "are you actually not able to excape a simple snare?!" the woodsman laughed again at the absurdity of the situation. The beast merely growled in response, he considered trying to stand in order to try and intimate the old man but decided that If he'd fell again I'd be even more mortafing. The beast simply brought himself into a more comfortable sitting position and turned to look at the woodsman as he just hoped that the woodsman would either help or leave, at this point he didn't care witch he chose as both would equally bring an end to his humiliating display of weakness. "why I don't think I've ever seen you this quiet before?" the woodsman approached his causing his to institutionally bring his good leg closer to his chest before could stop himself. The woodsman noticed the odd gesture but chose to ignore it but couldn't help but notice to anxiety that practically radiated from the beast. He wanted to find humour in the beasts weakness but for some reason he just couldn't bring himself to laugh at his mild fear. "if you plan on removing my burden then do so but I'd let you know even when injured I'm very much still a threat" the beasts voice was almost a growl and the human stood right in front of him, the woodsman nealed in front of the beast, taking this moment to get a closer look at this normally allucive creature. He slowly almost tentatively reached for the snare, he could hear the beast snarling at the contact but even he could tell he wasn't going to do anything. His older calised fingers gripped the snare and thankfully his life of cutting wood had helped hone his strength a bit so he was able to with a bit of effort prie the crude metal trap from the beast. Almost the second the beast was free he quickly forced himself to his feet and looked at the woodsman, trying to impose himself as a bit more threatening but not quite working. Dark brown eyes found glowing white ones as the woodsman trying to rise to his feet only for the beast to quickly turn and disappear into the dark night forest with out another word, the woodsman chuckled at the resemblance to a deer he'd see acasionaly around the forest. The beast still refuses to talk about it and the woodsman never brought it up again but the woodsman knew the beast was thankful when he returned home only to find some freshly killed rabbits piled neatly on his doorstep.

AUTHORS NOTE - sorry if this isn't that good and the spelling is off, this is my first attempt at writing a fanfic. Hope you like it and please leave comments with constructive criticism if you see ways I could improve.


	2. Hunting

Bran walked through the frozen forest flanked by his hunting partner and best friend, John, aswell as their 3 hunting dogs. The forest seemed endless while they talked and made jokes to one another as they searched the trees for a deer to take home. John had manged to snage 2 rabbits and a pheasant but bran had failed to catch anything so he decided he just HAD to bring home something big in order to one up his freind.

"are you sure you wanna find a stag? We only got a hour before night fall and last I checked you were s-s-scared of the d-dark" John laughed as he playfully mimiced brans voice. Bran rolled his eyes and gave a playful shuve to his freinds shoulder as he walked. "oh shut up, I'm not scared of the dark." he couldn't help but remember when John and the rest of his mates had jumped out from a tree while hunting and scared him half to death, that was almost a year ago and yet they refuse to forget and still mock his scream of terror. Bran say John's disbeliefing smirk and continued talking "The only reason I screamed back then was because I was startled when you jumped out at me, I just have faster instincts then you lazy lot, if a fearsom beast had jump out at us I would have been the only one to actually servive".

John continued to laugh as bran tried to explain himself and save his pride. Bran huffed and turned to look out into the forest but he stopped when he saw a blur of movement, a large blur of movement. He held out a hand to stop John and quickly shushed him before he could protest. They both stood still as bran pointed in the detection of the movement "I saw something run off that way, if you'd shut up we could actually manage to kill the damed thing" brans voice was hushed as he scaured the dark, snow covered trees for the animal. 

"what'd you see?" John's voice was quiet now as he looked out to join brans search efforts "I don't know but it was big, like really big. It could have been an elk or a moose" John shot him a concerned look "we should probably leave it be, it's going to be dark soon" his voice wavered as he looked around worriedly "if its that large it could be dangerous" John pat one of the dogs "it may hurt one of the dogs". Bran laughed softly and turned to face his freind "aww, what's wrong? Are you scared of some stupid deer? Or maybe" bran leaned a little closer "are you s-s-scared of the d-dark" he mimiced John's earlier mockery, relishing in the flushed look of embarrassment that flashed on John's features. 

"no! I'm not scared I'm just making sure that YOU don't do anything stupid!" John yelled, he quickly hushed himself and continued in a quieter tone "if you want to go and get yourself hurt be my guest but I'll not have my dogs hurt" bran rolled his eyes and pulled out some spare rope that he keeps on hand and tossed it to John. "then tie that to a tree and we'll got kill the stupid thing and once we're done then you can come back and get them" Bran gave him a annoyed look "OK?" John met his eyes and gave a quick response. 

"fine" 

As they walked John was noticeably more quiet and was constantly looking around nervously while bran was quietly going on and on about how easy grabbing the elk would be and how John was just being a 'scaredy cat'. "you shouldn't be such a baby, I doubt a dumb deer is going to do anything" Brans voice came in clear agenst the silent forest air. "we don't even know what this thing is, it could be a wolf or a man, or" his voice paused as he seemed to come to some sort of revelation, his worried expression flashed with a look a fear as he spoke "what if its the Beast?" he whispered those last few words as if he was scared of the words alone. 

Bran chuckled and turned to look at his freind "really, the beast? That old fairy tale that mothers tell their children?" he shook his head amused "if you really want to try and scare me, ya gonna have to try a bit harder" John opened his mouth to say something but a shape in the distance drew both of their attention, both for different reasons. 

The creature was hard to make out against the dark forest, how long had it been this dark? He didn't realise the sun setting but now its all he could think about. The dark creature shifted and large antlers stood out against the trees as the animal moved, was it facing them? Or was it looking away? This is all John could see as bran beemed beside him "see! Just some elk. And a huge one at that" the whispered as he hurriedly drew his gun and tried to find his aim. 

As John stared he caught a glimpse of two moon like eyes that almost glowed against the shadowy forest be him them. They looked so unnatural and so familiar, he struggled to remember where he's heard of them before as he watched with faded breath until he remembered the story his mother told him when he was younger. "watch out for the beast, a elk make of wood that stands of two feet with glowing white eyes and a ghostly lantern. If you are not careful he will turn you into oil in order to feed that cursed lantern and those evil eyes" the second he made the connection his heart dropped to his stomach and his eyes widened. 

He spun around to Bran to tell him to run, the hide, anything but as he looked to bran he heard a ear splitting explosion and a small flash from the barrel as bran fired. As John tried to register what just happened a sound a snow crunching infont of him caused him to panic. He ran, he turned and ran. He only glanced over his shoulder as he saw the creature running towards them, faster then any animal or man could. He saw the look of terror on brans face as his fear rendered him immobal. John turned and focused on running and excape but he couldn't help but hear a loud screaming soon silenced by an audible CRUNCH. 

The footsteps didn't follow him, perhaps it was to carryed away with bran to notice his excape. He felt as wave of guilt as he released he abandoned his best freind and he didn't even really feel sorry. He kept running towards the dogs and the path that they were taking but something felt wrong as he run, none of the trees looked familiar, he would have reached them by now. It was as if the forest had reanged around him. He suddenly felt more lost then he have ever felt. His hope begin to teter out the longer he ran without finding safely. He was trapped, he would see a pair of glowing eyes in the forest silently following every few hours. He was being followed, he was being hunted, he was pray. 

\--

The village was struck by worry when three dogs trotted into town, frightened and shaking. They were hunting dogs but there were no owners in sight until a woman claimed that they were his sons hounds. It didn't take long for rumours to spread about the missing boys but it only served to enforce the already present fear of monsters in the woods or the Beast that stalked the woods and inspired fear in all men or beast alike.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm trying to practice, pls leave constructive feedback to help improvement and pls say if you want to leave a suggestion


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